đź’« EXCITEMENT OR OVERSTIMULATION đź’«
Excitement and overstimulation are next-door neighbors. The line is so thin that most people don’t know the difference.
I would rather be the salve that soothes my dog during their lifetime, rather than the cause of overstimulation.
When our dog reaches an overstimulated state they are going to disregard our commands, have lower impulse control and inhibitions, and could potentially get into trouble.
Dogs that can regulate their emotions at home and in public get to explore more of the world. No issue with going to cafes, coffee shops, breweries, etc.
Calmness doesn’t always come baked into our dog. Most of the time we need to show our dog how to be calm on leash. This takes practice. This takes patience. This takes consistency.
💫 HOW TO TEACH “LEAVE IT” 💫
This is one command that should not take very long to teach your pup. Below are the step-by-step instructions on how to teach the “Leave It” command. Have questions? Leave them in the comments and I will happily answer them.
1. Take a handful of kibble or another high value treat and place it in an area where your dog can see it.
2. While your dog is on leash, walk towards the target and right when your dog begins to focus on the target you are going to say “Leave It” while simultaneous bumping the leash to help get their attention. Once they look back to you, make sure you reward with something that is of equal or higher value.
TIP: if your dog is quick and strong, you are going to want to create some more space between the target and the dog. This will prevent the dog from getting the treats before you give the command. The better the dog does, the closer you move to the target.
3. Repeat the verbal command and physical leash bump. You should only need to do this a few times before you just use the verbal command only. If the dog is struggling with checking in with you around the target, you are likely too close to it - take a few steps back.
4. Once your dog is moving slower around the target you should be able to just use the “Leave It” command and remove the leash bump from the equation.
5. If your dog is successful, continue to only use the verbal command and continue to practice over and over.
6. Try this in a variety of locations. Try different targets. Try while you and your dog are in motion. Try when you and your dog are stationary. The more ways you can practice this drill, the more successful your dog will be.
Happy Training!
If you’re struggling with your dog on walks or in the home, try giving your dog more time and freedom to sniff.
10 minutes of heavy sniffing is the equivalent of walking one mile.
So, next time you find yourself getting annoyed when your dog pulls off to sniff, just remember, it’s a necessary part of a their fulfillment and it will likely make your life much easier if you let them appropriately drain-that-brain.
đź’« BUILDING CONFIDENCE đź’«
If you’re looking to build confidence within you and your dog, look no further. @homedepot has all of your confidence building needs….
Sights, sounds, heights and textures cover almost all confidence building bases and The Home Depot has all of that and more under one roof.
Working on place, down and impulse control with our new pup Gemma.
đź’« IMPULSE CONTROL đź’«
In my house, the “carpet” command is just a variation of place. Place is probably the one command I use most in my day-to-day life.
In order for our dogs to strengthen their impulse control, we all have to start somewhere. Start with smaller chunks of time (2-5 mins) and continue to work your dog up to longer duration with consistent practice each day.
When should we be using place?
A common question with many answers….
Your dog could be tightening their impulse control on place when you:
- are preparing dinner.
- are eating dinner.
- are doing dishes.
- when guests are entering the home.
- when you are working from home.
- when you are on a phone call.
- when you give your dog an enrichment toy.
- when you are feeding them.
If your dog regularly struggles with excitement around other dogs, ask yourself some questions?
Does my dog regularly go to daycare of dog parks? If yes, your dog may only know “dogs” as fun things to chase and play with. I’ve seen many clients and their dogs struggle with just walking by another dog on a walk because of not implementing a balanced lifestyle when it comes to playing around dogs.
Just because your dog sees another dog does not mean it needs to get overstimulated by the thought of potentially playing with that dog.
This is also a common problem. I see regularly with clients who allow their dogs to say hello to every single dog they pass on walks. there’s a huge difference between healthy, socialization, and too much socialization.
We should all strive to build neutrality within our dogs. Too many owners confuse overstimulation with happiness, and this leads to larger problems down the road…reactivity, poor impulse control, tantrums.
Instead, try working on obedience drills around other dogs. Work on walking by dogs while your dog is in heel. Is your dog making regular eye contact with you, or dragging you all over the place? Work on recalls with your dog around other dogs. Or you are the most relevant thing in your dogs life, recalling them to you should be an easy choice for them.
đź’«DIRECTION OVER CORRECTION đź’«
Fizz can struggle with reactivity at times, so I took this opportunity to work on neutrality while a dog from behind a fence barked at us.
Before we even encountered this dog, I was already working on engagement, eye contact, “yes work” and neutrality. On our first pass by the dog, I put myself in between Fizz and the trigger, and he did incredible. During our second pass by, I had Fizz closer to the dog behind the gate, and although this did prove a little more challenging, he still kept moving, never lunged or lost control, and offered eye contact once we were beyond the house.
Make sure you are training FOR THE MOMENT…Not IN THE MOMENT. The prep work I did leading up to this encounter is what helped make this a success.
đź’« TRAINING LOOPS đź’«
A training loop is a compilation of different commands integrated into one another to make a simple, but effective way to teach obedience, or other forms of dog training.
The loop I created for Maggie in this video consisted of three different commands : “break” which is her release word, “come” which is the command I use to call a dog to me, and “place” which is a physical target that is a different height, or texture from the ground you were currently on.
By keeping the loop simple and brief, Maggie is able to pick up on the queues and commands very quickly and starts to predict the command I am going to ask of her.
This is a great way to incorporate multiple commands into one training session if you are short on time, but this is also great for building clear and concise habits through training.
BONUS: once your dog begins to predict the next command, this is a great time to switch up the order of your training loop. This prevent our dogs from slipping into cruise control, and ultimately keeps them dialed in and listening to what we are going to ask of them next.
Instead of bringing dogs into our chaos- what if we let them show us how to slow down?
When our dog trusts and respects us, they will begin to get on the same page with us.
Once on that page, we can begin to guide them to better things.
Helping our clients have calmer dogs by integrating mentally stimulating and structured walks.
